


The Blink Of an Eye

by makingitwork



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: 18 year old john, 20 year old Sherlock, Appearances can be decieving, Fluff, Give it a go, Happy Ending, M/M, One-Shot, Pre-Slash, University Student John, University Student Sherlock, Younger John, becomes slash at the end I guess, please?, you know you want too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 01:39:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3231422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makingitwork/pseuds/makingitwork
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock looks at John, and sees nothing worthy of credit. </p><p>Months later, he realises he's never been more wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blink Of an Eye

　

"Come on, Sherlock!" Mark sighed "Can't you do this one thing for me? Lisa doesn't want to go out with me unless she can find someone for her cousin. John's a great guy-"

"Says _you._ And you find Lisa attractive, so I honestly can't count your opinion for anything." The 20 year old university student sighed, running his hands through his unruly brown curls. He takes a look at his roommates face, and his shoulders slump "Tell me about him then. About this...John."

"Alright!" Mark clasps his hands together eagerly as he sits down opposite Sherlock at the kitchen counter, mindful of all the experiments "So, he's 18, his name is John Watson, he's studying medicine, nice guy, real kind. Not bad looking either, I s'pose, if that's your sort of thing. Small- mind you, blond hair, he's got a sister and he's gay too, obviously-"

"Intelligent?"

"I think so."

Sherlock nods begrudgingly "You'll owe me for this, Mark."

Saturday comes around too quickly for Sherlock, but he shrugs on his long, black coat, and walks in tandem step with Mark, the wind whistling past his tallow-white skin, hair ruffling as they make their way to the small café. Lisa is waiting outside, and Marcus beams upon seeing her, catching up, they share a hug. "Uh Lisa, this is my roommate, Sherlock,"

"Hiya Sherlock," she curls her brown hair behind her ear "John's just popped to the loo-"

The café door opens, and John steps out. He smiles brightly, hopefully, hand out to shake Sherlock's "Nice to meet you-"

"No." Sherlock says instantly, whirling around to face Mark "Sorry."

John flinches; _hard._ It's not a nice feeling, to be rejected like that, but as the three of them watch Sherlock walk away, he does his best to smile. "Go," he urges Lisa, who looks torn between crying for John, and running after Sherlock to rip him a new one. Marcus tries apologising, but John cuts him off "Seriously, I didn't expect anything different. Go, have fun, I've got loads of work to do anyway," he gives Lisa a quick hug, patting Marcus on the back, before jogging the opposite way Sherlock went, back home. Lisa stares after him sadly, but then Marcus captures their fingers together, and she does her best to forget.

Sherlock doesn't think much of it.

He did try, for goodness sakes, it's not his fault. But John was so... _plain._ From the dull blue of his eyes, to wash of his face, and that disgusting cream jumper. Even his voice- he only said four words and Sherlock knows that listening to him talk would be so monotonous that he might rip his ears out.

Weeks pass.

And then one day, while Sherlock is working on a case for the local police department (he's behind on his Chemistry work, not that he realises) he goes into a pet shop, to see which breed of dog would match the footprints found, when he sees John. The boring boy works there, apparently, and he's currently washing a dog, manning the quaint pet shop himself. Sherlock dings the bell. John doesn't turn, but raises his hand to show five minutes. He dries his hands with a towel, before jogging back to the counter "How can I help?" he asks with a smile, before realising who it is. He smile drops.

Sherlock winces a little. If John hates him, that will make this more difficult. "I need some help."

"What for?"

"I'm consulting on a case for the police. I need to identify what breed of dog has this footprint type to catch the guy."

John struggles for a moment, before nodding "Sure, yeah, okay," and he looks over the file that Sherlock hands him. Sherlock takes now to look him over. Still boring and drab, but now he's not wearing a cream jumper. He's wearing a work uniform, a black polo shirt with the pet stores logo in the corner, and faded jeans. "The witness statement seems...well I mean- he was drugged, right?"

Sherlock nods "I'm assuming that. Don't know from what though."

John nods, setting the file down "I wouldn't be surprised if it was the fog. I remember learning about Anthrax　and that's　all about gas, and no one would suspect fog." Sherlock follows him as John walks down an aisle, pointing to a cage, Sherlock writes the breed down, curious.

"The fog?"

"I don't know," he shrugs, returning back to bathing the dog. A golden retriever. "Good luck."

Sherlock hums, grabbing his file and leaving.

He comes back the next week, because John was right about the poison in the fog, and　so he asks what he thinks about the so called 'suicides' from people from inside locked　doors. They got the town library together,　and Sherlock revels because he's never taken books out of the library before, but John has a card, and lets him take out as many as he can. They go to Sherlock's apartment, scouring through the books for hints of ancient Chinese texts, and after a couple of hours, John makes tea. He makes it perfectly. And then he falls asleep, face　cushioned in a pile of books, and Sherlock decides that the way John snores in his sleep is actually _not_ boring.　It's...almost sweet. Gentle, and humming and background noise that encompasses life.

They solve the case.

And the next one.

And the next one.

Lisa and Marcus decide they want to see what it's like living together, so John ends up moving in on a temporary basis, and soon Sherlock starts introducing John to people as his friend.

John takes a bullet for Sherlock on their next case, only nicks him in the shoulder, but while they're in hospital, John getting patches of his skin sewn together, Sherlock starts to see him. And I mean, really _see_ him.

He’s not plain. His eyes sparkle light azure, and his smile makes Sherlock pause and take notice. His cream jumpers sit soft on his delicate shoulders, and his voice isn’t monotonous. It’s caring and kind, and he uses the inflection of certain words and phrases to make Sherlock laugh.

The only problem is; John doesn’t find Sherlock attractive.

Oh he did, once. For about 4 seconds when he first saw Sherlock, when he saw stormy eyes, tousled hair, and a long jacket, with a strong jaw. But then Sherlock rejected him. With one glance. And no matter how much John values Sherlock as a friend now, any attraction died.

Sherlock hates himself.

How can he call himself clever when he didn’t see how special John was? Now, he watches balefully, as John looks at himself in the mirror. "D’you think Lucas will like it?" he asked nervously

Sherlock smiled sadly "Of course he will."

John bit his bottom lip, peeking at himself again and groaning "Why can’t I do anything to my hair?"

Sherlock laughed "Your hair is fine, John," he looked down at his test tubes "Where’s he taking you?"

"Sushi place," John hugged himself "It’s like…my first ever date, you know?"

Sherlock wants to die inside. He could have been John’s first ever date. In fact, he very nearly was. But he walked away. "Relax, John, he wouldn’t have asked you out if he didn’t like you." He watches John through his lashes "Do you like him?"

"I actually don’t know," John murmured, stepping away from the mirror and into the kitchen, "I sort of just said yes because…well, I think I _could_ like him, you know? And he…" he shrugs "He said he thought I was easy on the eyes." John’s cheek flush red "He finds me attractive, Sherlock!"

Something horrible twists in Sherlock’s gut. "John, you’re only 18. There are going to be loads of people who think you’re _beautiful._ You don’t have to say yes to the first one."

John rolls his eyes "Please Sherlock, we’re not all _you._ We don’t all get everyone we want with a bat of our lashes. Besides, Lucas takes forensic science. Seems a pretty good match."

"You are beautiful, John," Sherlock tries, and John rolls his eyes

"It’s okay, Sherlock," he chuckles "I don’t need a confidence boost," he jerks when the doorbell rings, and he grabs his coat, waving goodbye "See you in a few hours!"

He doesn’t come home in a few hours.

It’s nearly 2 am when Sherlock hears footsteps outside, and he watches through the window, as John, _his John,_ is pressed against their front door, with Lucas towering over him. One arm strung up, placed just above John’s head, and John doesn’t seem to mind at all. Lucas is…attractive. Sherlock supposes. A rugby player, tall and broad, with slicked back black hair, he’s slightly tanned, with glittering eyes.

"Have you ever been kissed, John?" Lucas whispers, voice soft and full of lust. Cool breath blowing over John’s face

He bites his lip and shakes his head.

Lucas places a hand on John’s neck, cradling his jaw, and John tilts up obediently. He’s nervous. Nervous and eager, and Sherlock can’t help thinking that this should be him! He kicks at the wall in frustration, and a picture swings loose, hitting the ground with a thump. John looks up at the sound, distracted but smiling "I uh…I should be getting inside."

Lucas nods, pulling John in for a hug "Till next time, gorgeous,"

John’s ears tinge red "Bye," he whispers, and stands at the door, watching him go. When he comes inside, he seems surprised to see Sherlock still working on his experiments. John arches an eyebrow amusedly "You weren’t up waiting for me, were you?"

"Of course not."

John smiles, hugging Sherlock tightly "Thanks Sherlock, but you don’t have to worry about me, you know? Lucas is great." He pulls away, but Sherlock has memorised his scent.

John breaks up with Lucas the first time Lucas and Sherlock meet.

Sherlock is actually trying to be nice, and courteous, but Lucas doesn’t like Sherlock. The boy can probably sense that Sherlock wants to be much more than friends with John. John gets irritated at the way Lucas talks to Sherlock, and orders him to apologise. Lucas doesn’t. And thus, the relationship ends.

"You didn’t have to stick up for me like that," Sherlock says gently, and the nearly 19 year old John Watson looks up at him sadly

"’Course I do. You’re my best ma-"

Sherlock kisses him.

Sherlock isn’t quite sure how these things are supposed to feel, but this feels _superb._ John’s lips are soft to the touch, and part in surprise, he makes a little humming sound, and Sherlock knows he wants to wrap his arms around John and protect him from every bad thing in the world.

They pull apart, and John stares. Dazed. He reaches up a shaking hand to touch his lips and he blinks owlishly "Did you just…"

"I want to date you." He whispers

"You want to suffocate me?!" John shrieks, and Sherlock laughs

" _Date_ you. I want to be your boyfriend-"

"But you don’t…" John looked around, struggling for the right word "You don’t look at me like t-"

"John please." Sherlock grabs John’s wrist, and pulls his hand towards his trousers. When John feels the hard on, his cheeks flush red

" _Oh."_

"Will you forgive me for what I did when we first met?"

John looks at him for a moment, before nodding "Yeah," he grins "I think I can do that."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comment?  
> x


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